A Pop Culture Ode to My Mom

In keeping with the theme of this blog and also because much of my relationship with my mother is based on our similar affinity for all things movies and TV things anyway, I decided to write a post about my favorite pop culture related activities to do with my mom. After all, this is the woman who had me quoting movies and TV almost from the moment I could talk (and we have the home videos to prove it), so it should come as no surprise that she played a huge role in making me the walking imdb that I am today. In fact, most of my memories with my mom also include a movie or a TV show, which some might see as sad and pathetic. To a certain degree, it is, but if you know my mom and I at all, it shouldn’t come as a surprise.

With that in mind, I give you my top ten favorite things to do with my mom. I decided to take out the caveat that they be pop-culture related, as these are pretty much just my favorite things to do with my mom.

10. Lazy Saturday Mornings (that sometimes last all day) – Yeah, it usually starts out with us just watching last night’s The Soup, but it usually evolves into us re-watching other episodes from the week or watching some movie that is on TBS that we have seen a hundred times and own.
9. Educating Each Other – When I entered this realm, I was naïve and had no understanding of what passed as good entertainment, but like every good mother should, Mom took me under her wing and showed me the light. Yes, she got me a lot of crap (I’m looking at you 3 Ninjas), but that’s expected with kids movies. And what other four-year-old was watching Saturday Night Live Goes Commercial, Mystery Science Theatre 3000, or what I later discovered was an edited copy of Grease (the real lyrics of “Greased Lightening” came as a huge shock to me later in life)? Not any that I knew. Now, I think both my mom and I can agree that I have taken the reigns in educating her in what qualifies as good entertainment, much to her annoyance, I’m sure.
8. Award Shows – I remember the first Academy Awards that I actually sat down and watched with my mom. The year was 1995 and I hadn’t seen a single movie that won. I remember this because I was grossly disappointed when Babe didn’t win Best Picture. But at that tender age of 7, I got caught up in the pomp and circumstance of it all and we have watched every year since. Even when we ended up in a hotel room in Seattle one year, we still found a way to have our own little Oscars party complete with IBCs icing in the bathroom sink.
7. TV Show Marathons – Bones, Vampire Diaries, Veronica Mars, and others that are escaping me. What do these shows have in common besides being awesome? Well, my mom and I have watched them in their entirety in far too short a span of time. Like when we stayed up until 4 o’clock in the morning after watching 11 hours of Bones with our dear friend Hailey when on a three day binge of watching the first four seasons. Yeah, we’re awesome.
6. Discussion of the hotness of male celebrities – My friends often make the comment that I will only watch a TV show if I have a crush on one of the male characters (I have no idea where they got this crazy idea), but I probably get this from the woman who used to play computer Hearts with Denzel, Antonio, and Mel. This was before Mel went off the rails, though. She would probably change it to Mark, David, and Matt now, or something like that. (Ryan, Hugh, and George were my other considerations). How’d I do, Mom?
5. Comic Con – Granted we have only gone one year (and tickets for this year!), but it was pure awesomeness and the perfect excursion for us. Four days of sitting in a packed room listening to celebrities and showrunners talk about their TV shows while being surrounded by our fellow nerds. Not to mention all the free swag and the swooning that took place during this moment.
4. British Women Getting Married Movies – This is the title that my brother has given to our BBC period pieces/ any Jane Austen adaptation. When I was home sick one day from school, my mom introduced me to the 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and I can literally say it changed my life. Since then, Masterpiece Theatre fare has sort of become our thing and we have expanded to include Dickens, Gaskell, and other fare where… well, British women get married.
3. Entertainment games that no one ever wants to play with us – To this day, my mom is the only worthy adversary I have found to battle me in Scene It and no road trip is complete without some variation of a movie-themed game. Our iPhones have now only made it more possible for us to bone up on our useless entertainment trivia.
2. Our Special Movie Theatre Routine – No one understands the proper way to do movie theatres like my mom, perhaps because she is the one who trained me in the art. It is essential that you show up to the theatre 20 minutes before the movie starts, earlier if it is the movie’s opening weekend. This guarantees you enough time to go to the bathroom, get concessions, check out the new movie posters lining the hallways, and get the perfect seats (the ones right behind that bar so you can put your feet up). But most important of all, you never, EVER miss trailers. This is just blasphemy in the Lloyd household.
1. Post-Thursday night TV phone/text conversations – Thank goodness for TV or my mom and I would have nothing to talk about. If we talk no other day of the week, you can pretty much count on the fact that we will call each other on Friday afternoon to talk about all the insanity that took place during our Thursday night lineup.

Wow, if you are anyone but my mom and you have made it this far, I am impressed and you must really like myself, my mom, or both of us.

Mom, I love you and I hope you have the bestest Mother’s Day!